[EN] Ultimately, today I think we have to move towards lifetime bans. Not because I think people shouldn’t get a second chance in life, but because drug taking is too frequent and a clear message needs to be put out there that it’s just not acceptable, ever. Not to mention the fact that the effects of some drugs may out-last the designated ban periods for some cheats.

[EN] But to ban people you have to have tests and this is definitely where trail running needs to up its game. There are more and more races offering big prize money and many of them don’t test the athletes. This approach opens the door and makes it too easy and attractive for potential cheats. You have to question the sense of putting $10k up for grabs in a race with no drug testing at the finish line. It’s unfortunate and sad to have to do it, to not be able to trust competitors, but unfortunately we have to work with human nature and that means taking into account the small percentage of people that don’t want to play by the rules. All that said, I do think it would be taking it too far to test random runners at local trail races. I’m talking about testing podiums at major competitions, internationals and big prize money races.

[EN] In an ideal world trail running keeps it simple and keep it natural. It doesn’t need to be about much more than putting some shoes on and heading out of the door. Wear some nice products if you like and take some pretty pictures of the scenery on your way. But you’ve got to question if you need to go any further than that? Taking dietary complements isn’t taking drugs, but for me it still falls into that basket of putting unknowns into your system. Ok, I know runners who struggle with anaemia and taking iron supplements is the only way for them to keep strong enough to compete. But then I know others who take handfuls of pills every day because basically it’s been sold to them that it might help in some way or other. Do you really know exactly what’s inside all those tablets? If you don’t need it then don’t take it – that’s what I think. Food is quite good for you and tasty you know. World records aren’t broken by taking Cod liver oil or fancily-packaged antioxidants.[FR] Dans un monde idéal, le « trail running » reste une pratique simple, naturelle. Mets tes baskets et vas faire un footing – ce sont les éléments de base. Prends des photos si tu veux et mets des vêtements techniques et à la mode. Mais faut-il aller plus loin ? Les compléments diététiques ne sont pas des produits de dopage, mais pour moi ils sortent clairement de la liste maitrisée de ce qu’on peut choisir d’ingérer. Certes, je connais quelques personnes qui ont des taux très faibles de fer et ils prennent des compléments et ça aide. Mais il y en a beaucoup aussi qui prennent un tas de trucs simplement parce qu’on leur a vendu un potentiel « effet bénéfique ». Maitrises-tu vraiment ce qui est là-dedans ? Si tu n’en as pas besoin, n’y touches pas – c’est mon approche... Bien manger c’est suffisant, et c’est assez naturel aussi… On ne bat pas des records du monde avec de l’huile de foie de morue ou un assortiment d’antioxydants dans un joli bocal.

[EN] Now there are other things you can do to assist your trail running performance, whether it’s legal, cheating, of pushing the limits of what’s allowed. But as above, most of these concepts are not exactly in line with the healthy aspect of our sport. The Oregon Project would appear to be a good example. Let’s test the athletes until we find a potential reason to give them some medicine they don’t really need, but might make them run faster.

[EN] I don’t think for a second that sticking colourful plasters to your skin (as is currently fashionable amongst some runners) in any way directly improves an athlete’s performance, but imagine if it did? Taking it a step further however, imagine someone one day comes up with a mechanism of passing glycogen directly into muscles via a little plastic gizmo stuck to your skin? Call it ActiveGlycogen4U if you like. Or a lactic acid evacuator! Now that would surely class as cheating. Let’s not go down that route. We don’t need to push the boundaries of legitimacy.

- If you’re a runner: keep it simple and keep it natural.- If you’re an organiser offering big bucks prize money: seriously consider testing the athletes.- If you’re a doper: get out of the sport, or if you recognise that you’ve done wrong at least own up to it and talk about it and try to do something positive to compensate.- If you’ve got an opinion talk about it. Trail running as a sport has choices to make and athletes can dictate those choices by debating the alternatives and opportunities.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

The els2900 was in its first edition this year, a brand new event and a slightly different concept to the norm! It's organised by mountain lovers and it is what I'd call "a proper mountain race". I have to emphasise that because in today's world certain words and titles have been diluted to the extent that, for example, a world cross country championship can involve laps of a football pitch, world mountain running champs are often based on laps of city parks and Sky Running has equally tamed itself down to reach an international and wider market.The way that products usually evolve is that if not many people are interested in them, in order to make them popular you have to bend the rules or change the original scope of your creation, unless you want to keep it low key / not mainstream. Most organisers (of races or series of races) do not want to keep their baby "low key".

els2900 completely ignores business drivers, it has no ego or ambitions to rule the world. The els2900 makes a deliberate return to Sky Running's original values and definitions. It's proper hard core! Ridges, ropes and everything. If you loose your footing and slip, then you're going a long way, and you're not necessarily going to be laughing about it in the refuge that evening either. So to manage the inherent risks, the organisers have put in place a time consuming athlete-vetting process, with the objective of verifying and validating applicants' abilities over such terrain. Basically you can be the fittest runner in the world (even a world mountain running champion :) but you won't get an entry into els2900 without proving you're not a liability to yourself and to others.

So here's a few subjects to debate:

Is Sky Running right to be softening up to fit a larger audience? Keeping it safe.

Or can we build on what els2900 have done and make a whole new series of real mountain running / alpinism races?

But then how do you manage it when hundreds of able "alpine runners" want to sign up? Who do you pick?

Here's what I think, but I'll keep it brief and fairly neutral ... For further discussion join me for a beer in a refuge in Andorra some time:Saturday was one of the best if not the best days out in the mountains I've ever had. It was simply awesome! I loved (nearly:) every minute of it and would do more races of that format, should they exist. If I go to the hills it's for an adventure, the purpose is usually to bag some peaks and to soak up some views and some tranquillity. So what better format than an A to B route via all of Andorra's seven 2900m+ peaks? We're not talking convoluted laps of the park now are we?!! Could this perhaps be real mountain running?... Yes, it's unfortunate to have to limit such an incredible experience to only fifty people, but it just wouldn't work otherwise, at least not in the same style. Don't forget we were starting and finishing in mountain huts, with limited sleeping and eating capacity. There were many scrambles up loose rocky slopes, where rock fall is hard to avoid and more people = more risk. ​(This (rock fall) would in fact appear to be the single biggest and hardest to manage hazard of racing over such terrain. And I'm not sure what a satisfactory solution would be. Helmets?) And finally we're in the mountains for the craic, for l'ambience. Sharing space and time with like-minded people. It's not the same close-knit community spirit in the streets and hotels of Chamonix before the Mt Blanc marathon is it now?! It's different.So I do understand the drivers behind downward taming of cross country to the level of track running, wmra mountain running to xc, and Sky to mountain. It's money, audiences, media, accessibility. But if that's what we're doing then I'm all for the arrival of Alpine Running. Let's have something high up, difficult, a bit dangerous, for those that want to get involved. The key is to manage it well and to control the obvious risks of many people moving fast and light on tricky terrain.And for their first edition of an event of such a kind you couldn't have done much better than what Matthieu and Carles put on. My upmost respect for daring to do it in the first place and for executing to such a standard, first time round. Impressive! Nice one guys!

And now for a very brief RACE REPORT:

in just a few words....Friday morning: "The organisers gather us all together for a gentle 3-hour hike up to the start-line.

The race starts at midnight, to quite a fast pace. After all the organisers had forewarned us that the first 30km were to be quite runnable..When, after thirty minutes of running we hit some climbing sections, it was then that I knew to never again trust the organisers' definition of "flat"...

Three hours of running and into the 1st feed station. A nice selection of drinks and food on offer, including sushi. "Would you have any wasabi sauce, or ginger, chopsticks?"